The Beef Task Force which was set up to rationalise the beef-processing industry failed again yesterday to reach consensus on a report on how to proceed.
Yesterday's meeting was to have been the final one to come up with a plan which would see the closure of smaller beef-processing plants and the streamlining of larger existing plants.
The farm organisations, the Irish Farmers' Association and the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, had objected to a proposal to impose a statutory levy on the industry to pay smaller operators to leave the industry.
They feared the beef factories would pass on the cost of the levies to farmers by cutting the price they paid for cattle and they opposed the move despite a plan which would have seen An Bord Bia, the Irish food board, acting as an independent auditor of the scheme.
Yesterday Mr John Smith of the Irish Meat Association, which represents the meat plants, said progress had been made and he was hopeful the work of the committee would soon be concluded.
He said the farming lobby had accepted the need for rationalisation, and this was a big step forward.
The Irish Farmers' Association President, Mr Tom Parlon, said he was happy the issue of the statutory levy on the meat plants was now off the agenda.
"We accept the need for rationalisation, but we are also seeking the removal of another levy, the £3-per-head levy for the disposal of specified risk materials from animals, which we have to pay," he said.
"The meat plants are opposed to this, but we are making progress, and a plan will emerge.
"It is in the interests of farmers that we have efficient plants to which we will supply top-class animals which will bring the prices up," he said.
Mr Frank Allen, president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers' Association, said the removal of the threat of a statutory levy was to be welcomed. Progress could now be made and there might be another meeting.
A Department of Agriculture spokesman said the emergence of a consensus that rationalisation must take place was real progress.
He said proposals from the sides would be examined to see where common ground on the necessary streamlining of the industry could be achieved.